Nepean Redskins name sparks war of words

Andrew Nolan of the Nepean Redskins (foreground) tries to break a tackle from Brad Hinton of the Bell Warriors during a National Capital Amateur Football Association game in 2006. (TONY CALDWELL/OTTAWA SUN FILE PHOTO)

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A city councillor got heat from First Nations leaders Monday after an Ojibway resident was soured by a response to his concerns over the name of the Nepean Redskins football club.

The fracas started after Ian Campeau, 31, e-mailed Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder asking for her support to persuade the National Capital Amateur Football Association club to change its name.

Harder responded: “You won’t get it from me or anyone else I know. The Nepean Redskin football name is some 40 years old or more and in the entire time I have been in Nepean. Until the last year or so there has never been any talk of name change and even since then only a few including yourself. You are looking for trouble where none exists.”

Harder told the Sun she receives similar e-mails each year when football season rolls around.

“I mean it with all due respect, I’m just not getting involved with it,” Harder said.

Campeau called Harder’s e-mail “curt and frankly offensive.

“I was shocked a councillor who was elected to help fix problems wouldn’t even listen to my problem,” Campeau said in an interview. “She said I was the one with the problem.”

Campeau said he e-mailed Harder because she represents the ward where the club plays. He said he doesn’t want his two young daughters growing up hearing the offensive name.

He is even offering to help raise funds for the club to pay for any costs associated with changing the name.

“I just don’t want to see them play under a racist moniker,” Campeau said.

The Assembly of First Nations looked at the e-mail exchange and sent the Sun a statement, saying the organization supports people “attempting to address and end discrimination against our peoples.”

“Mr. Campeau is one of many young leaders attempting to correct our shared history in a way that will strengthen relationships between First Nations and other Canadians,” the statement says. ”He has reached out to Ottawa city council for assistance and it is extremely unfortunate his efforts have been dismissed so abruptly. We urge Ottawa city council and all administrations to work together with concerned constituents in this regard.”

Club president Steve Dean couldn’t be reached for comment, but in an interview with the Sun last year he said the name is “never used in a racial way” and that there have been Native members of the club who have not considered it an issue.